So last Thursday night KATIE CAME to LA! I was so fucking excited for her to come out here, I can't even explain. Mostly I was excited to finally have a buddy to explore with and boy, did we explore. Lets see...
Friday morning we woke up just in time for brunch/lunch. Since I didn't know where to go for lunch, I had my GPS lead us to a place that it had listed. Either the place didn't exist anymore or we were blind and couldn't find it. But we wound up at a little french-ish cafe where I had a delicious breakfast sandwich and Katie had a decent omelet. After that we went to The Getty Center, which is a museum and so much more up in the hills of LA. In order to get up to the Getty, you must take a Monorail up the hill - that is the only way to get there. The Getty is GORGEOUS beyond compare. It is a museum, yes, but in a way, the whole grounds are the real art. The architecture is beautiful, the view is delectable, the colors are fantastic. Also, it was soo hot and sunny that day (finally) so everyone was walking around with these big, beige umbrellas provided by the Getty. It was such a wonderful afternoon, lounging in the sun, looking at art, taking pictures and hanging out with my sister. Perfection. That night, we went to meet Katie's High School friend Adam, who is living in Hollywood, at Cha Cha Chicken, a place I believe I have mentioned before. It is a little whole in the wall Caribbean place, which I didn't realize Katie had never been to. After our delicious dinner, we decided to walk around 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, since it was right down the street. We got Pinkberry and shmyed, and it was lovely. Then, we went to get my car, and we had forgotten to write down where we parked it. It seemed like we walked the ENTIRE parking garage and still could not find the car. Then we took one flight of stairs up and ended up at the right place. It was like we kept missing that floor. It was bizarre and it took us like over 30 minutes. Anyways, we came home and hung out with our cousins and crashed.
The next day, Saturday, I decided to take Katie up to Venice Beach to shop around and eat and people watch. I have never been to Venice beach (well not for a LOOONG time anyways) so i thought it might be fun. Trashy, but fun. Also, I have been to First Fridays on Abbot Kinney Blvd, and in the dark it seemed like there would be a lot of stuff on that street to do. I was wrooooong. Unfortunately we could not find a place to eat because they were either too swanky or too trashy or not what we wanted. We ended up eating at a little coffee shop, which we though would be just plain. It was actually delicious, which I was not expected. So then we decided not to go down to the boardwalk, because it was just a little too sketchy/trashy, so we decided to drive to Hollywood & Highland and go shopping and see the tourists. That was a lot of fun, although I felt bad about our odd morning/my lack of planning. Anyways, we were planning on going to see Saturday Night Fever in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery that night. Katie didn't really like the movie (which I didn't learn until after), but I was mostly just bringing her for the atmosphere. I figured we would get inside, have a lovely, lovely picnic and then watch the movie. The picnic was what i was most excited for. Well we got there a little later than we had originally planned, and the line was totally outrageous - I was not expecting it. It seems as the summer progresses, the word gets out more and more so more and more people come. By the time we actually got in, it was just about dark and there were only seats on the cement left. Luckily, Katie's friend and his roommates (who live around the corner) got in early and were able to get seats up front. We ended up having good seats, but we barely got to picnic before the movie started so we were just sort of eating and watching the movie, which is not what I had in mind. I felt really bad about the whole thing, especially since Katie isn't a fan of the movie, but she assured me it was fine. Still, I wish we could have really picnicked together.
Sunday, I decided to take Katie to this Korean restaurant down the street from my house called Tofuya. It has suuucchhh good food, but we ended up getting a little too much - especially since this was our lunch! After, we got Boba (for the second time because I am addicted) and headed to the Watts Towers. It was such an odd thing to see, driving through this middle/lower class town, turning on to a residential street and then seeing these crazy, cement and wirey mosaiced sculpture. It was way cool, except in order to get in to the towers (the area was fenced off) you had to pay $7. WE were not going to do that, especially since you can see most of the towers and surrounding area through the fence. WE stayed there for like a half hour and then left. They were wild though. After that, we drove all the way to Hollywood to go to the La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum that accompanies them. Outside the museum is one BIG tar pit (along fake drowning elephants in it and gas bubbles galore), which my sister and I watched for probably 20+ minutes. Watching and waiting for the huge gas bubbles to erupt in the tar is way more exciting than it sounds, trust us. After, we went into the museum and went through the whole thing. It is an awesome museum and we had a great time going through it. The coolest part (sort of) is the fishbowl, where soundproof glass encases the archaeologists who are currently doing work on the things they find in the pits - we are supposed to watch them. It is really cool. After that, we went to the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) which we didn't realize was right next door. My sister and I have been there before in 2006 where we saw an AWESOME Magritte exhibit. Little did we know, the museum actually houses SO MUCH art it was astounding. There are 5 separate buildings of art within this museum, we only went to one. Actually, I think we only went to 2 floors of one. Well whether I'm right or not, we were only able to see a fraction of the art that is housed in this wonderful museum. After that, we were exhausted and decided to go home. We had a lot of Caribbean leftovers, as well as picnic leftovers so we decided to just sit in the play room and watch something on TV. It turns out that my cousin had taped an HBO documentary called Hear & Now (a film my sister had seen at Sundance). The film is about an older couple who have been deaf their whole lives and are now getting cochlear implants. It is such a cute story. After that, we decided to get some green tea Mochi (which I had been craving since I got here) and watch part of another documentary called Los Angeles Plays Itself. We sat in our bed, watched it on my computer and ate green tea Mochi and leftover (delicious) birthday cake. It was awesome.
On Monday, I had to go into work around 2 ish, so before that happened I decided to bring Katie to brunch at a restaurant in Hollywood. The place we went to is called Kitchen 24. They serve breakfast all day and their prices were pretty cheap so I figured that's where we would go. It was AMAZING (Katie can attest to that) like way better that I had expected. Mmmm I want to go back right now. Well after that, we walked around a bit, went to Borders to get Katie a book and then went into my work. I had to run a few errands (and took Katie with me), but after that there wasn't really much for us to do. Thankfully, they let us leave by 4ish. This way, we were able to go home, eat the leftover Korean food (which is better the second day, I think), watch the remainder of Los Angeles Plays Itself, get ready and go to THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS concert. We got there right as the New Pornographers were supposed to come on but when the curtain opened, we realized it was one of the opening bands. I don't remember their name, but they were weird and I didn't like them. After them, we assumed that we had missed the other opening band (which was the Dodos). Actually, the Dodos came on after, which was a pleasant surprise since Katie wanted to see them. They were great and luckily they played the only song I knew by them so I could dance along. By the time the New Pornographers got onstage, it was like 10:45 (since set up between the acts took FOREVER). But it was worth the wait because they were AWESOME. The most amusing part of the show was actually Dan Bejar, who is like the mastermind behind the group. When he was singing he was drinking a beer and when he was playing guitar he was facing away from the audience and then other times he wasn't on at all. I read something and It seems that this is sort of his fashion - it wasn't just this show. Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay for the whole thing (we left around 11:40) since we had to be up at 4:30 the next morning, but it was still awesome nonetheless.
The next morning I brought Katie to the airport (at 5:30am) and it was saaaaad. That weekend was probably by far the BEST BEST BEST weekend I have had in LA all summer. By a mile.